Review: 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Update

200-card factory serves as a nice addendum

2009-10 OPC Update #771 - Tyler MyersReleased in April 2010, the O-Pee-Chee Update Set featured 200 cards that extended the O-Pee-Chee set issued earlier in the 2009-10 hockey season. This was a smart move by Upper Deck, who currently leases the “O-Pee-Chee” brand name from Topps.

In 2009, Upper Deck released a 200-card Update Set for its 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee set, but in 5-card packs. Three out of 5 of the cards in the pack were parallels, making this a particularly hard set to piece together. Fortunately, Upper Deck did not repeat that mistake, and instead issued the 2009-10 Update as a pre-collated factory set.

2009-10 OPC Update #687 - Mike CammalerriPlayer selection 5 out of 5
This 200-card update – swelling the overall set to a monstrous 800 cards – features 150 cards of veterans, 48 Marquee Rookies and 2 checklists. Many of the players shown were traded in the off-season, and thus are in their new uniforms, like Chris Pronger, Craig Anderson, Phil Kessel and Mike Cammalerri.

Front Design  4 out of 5
This Update Set utilizes the same design as the “regular” OPC set issued earlier this year. The giant, obnoxious O-Pee-Chee logo dominates the design of the card front, but otherwise the design is appealing. Team colors at the top and bottom adorn the borders, while two hockey stick-shaped “swoops” give the top of the card a little visual flair. Providing a nice visual touch is the inversed “E” from the O-Pee-Chee logo that is used as a pattern along the top and sides of the cards. A game-action photo is used with the team logo superimposed in the lower right corner.

2009-10 OPC Update #641 - Manny MalhotraBack design / stats & info 3 out of 5
The back of each card can accommodate up to 15 years of stats, and also has height, weight and if they are a left or right-handed shot (or catch for goalies). With so many players coming from European countries, name pronunciations would have been helpful too.

2009-10 OPC Update #641 - Manny Malhotra (back)In my review of the regular 2009-10 OPC set, I complained about the cheap stock that these cards are printed on, resulting in unsightly, hard-to-read gray card backs. That complaint still stands, though is somewhat mitigated, as a factory set costs far less than piecing together a set via packs.

2009-10 OPC Update #800 - John TavaresSubsets  3 out of 5
There are 48 Marquee Rookies, featuring players who made their debut during the 2009-10 season. Of course, Jonathan Tavares, Viktor Hedman, Matt Duschense are included, as well as rookie-of-the-year Tyler Myers.

The Marquee Rookies have a simpler design than the base cards, utilizing a head-and-shoulder portrait shot superimposed over a solid colored background. Many times, the background color is the same color as the player’s jersey, causing the two to visually run together a bit. The word ROOKIE – which takes up about 20% of the card – and the borders are printed in gold ink.

There are also two checklists. Does anyone actually “check” these anymore?

Retail Notes
The set was sold by hobby dealers, but not retail outlets like Target or Wal-Mart. The set ranges in price from $25 to $35.

2009-10 OPC Update Factory Set Box
2009-10 OPC Update Factory Set Box

In addition to the 200 cards, 5 randommetal foil parallel cards are included. One in every 5 update sets included a jersey card instead of some (or all) of the base parallels.

Rating 4 out of 5The 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Update Set has cards of all the sought-after rookies from the season, as well as numerous star players in their new uniforms. That’s a pretty good deal, considering that it costs less than half the price of your average wax box.

BONUS
Five interesting cards…

009-10 OPC Update #680 - Andrew Ebbett680 – Andrew Ebbett – Despite avoiding this practice in the prior 2009-10 OPC set, the Update Set has a few ‘franken-cards’ like this one, where the photo is from one team and the design and borders another team. Would it really have mattered if Ebbett’s card had the ‘Hawks border? (back)

2009-10 OPC Update #699 - Craig Anderson699 – Craig Anderson – Avs goalie looks poised and ready. (back)

2009-10 OPC Update #707 - Brent Sopel707 – Brent Sopel – He may have been fourth on the depth chart, but in many games during the playoffs, Sopel played like the ‘Hawks best defenseman. (back)

2009-10 OPC Update #748 - Mathieu Roy748 – Mathieu Roy – I don’t know what’s funnier: the expression on Roy’s face, or on the guy sitting behind him. (back)

2009-10 OPC Update #771 - Tyler Myers771 – Tyler Myers – The 2009-10 Rookie of the Year. (back)

NOTES
200 card factory set
Card size: 2 1/2″ wide x 3 1/2″ tall
Click here to download a printable checklist

mm

Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

2 thoughts on “Review: 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Update”

  1. I wish I would have picked that up. I was going to but for some reason didn't. Oh well.

    Which Metal cards did you pull?

  2. I finally found the metal cards–they were misplaced. The 5 that I got were:

    611 – Darryl Sydor
    697 – Evgeny Artyukhin
    708 – Bryan Bickell
    738 – Jean-Francois Jacques
    777 – Michael Del Zotto (Marquee Rookies)

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